About the team
Meet the Executive Board of the National Student Bioethics Association
Ariadne Nichol
Founder and Executive Board
Ariadne Nichol is a researcher at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics and a fourth year medical student at UCSD School of Medicine. She earned her bachelors degree in Human Biology from Stanford University, where she graduated with Honors in Ethics in Society and was a Public Service Scholar. She has previously worked on global public health research ethics topics at Doctors Without Borders and at the World Health Organization (WHO). Her work has been published in the American Journal of Bioethics, the Journal of Medical Internet Research, PLOS One, and the JAMA Network Open. Her areas of interest include global health research ethics; ethical challenges associated with emerging infectious diseases; as well as ethical and social issues raised by application of big data and machine learning in health care and for precision medicine.
Shivam Bhargava
Executive Board and Conference Chair
Shivam Bhargava is a first year medical student at Indiana University School of Medicine. Previously as an undergraduate student at UNC Chapel Hill, he served as the Founder and President of the Bioethics Society of UNC, which is the first ever bioethics organization at the school with a general membership of 200+ students. Through this organization, he led bioethics research initiatives, medical case writing, and guest speaker events. In addition, Shivam conducted his own bioethics research surrounding narrative medicine and anti-racism in clinical skills medical education. He is very passionate about the intersection between bioethics and education and is an aspiring bioethicist.
Cara Hunt
Executive Board
Cara Hunt is a research associate in the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone's Department of Population Health. She earned her undergraduate degree in science, technology, and society at Vassar College, after which she taught robotics and engineering to K-5 students. She then worked in the Education Department at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, during which time she earned a master's in bioethics at New York University.
Nell Mermin-Bunnell
Executive Board
Nell Mermin-Bunnell is an MD candidate at Emory University School of Medicine and an MPP candidate at Harvard Kennedy School. She completed her BS in Psychology at Yale University in May 2021. At Yale, she conducted research in moral psychology with Dr. Paul Bloom and in applications of behavioral economics in public health with Dr. Woo-Kyoung Ahn. She also spent a year studying the ethics of digital mental health care with Dr. Nicole Martinez at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics. She hopes to eventually pursue research at the intersection of behavioral ethics and bioethics. For fun, Nell enjoys singing and playing the guitar, running, reading, and pondering puzzling philosophical quandaries.
Meet the Commitee Chairs of the National Student Bioethics Association
Nathaniel Mamo
Bioethics Education Co-Chair
MA student at NYU Bioethics. Former Research Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute. Interested in the intersection of international development and health policy. Looking to learn more about collective-decision making in healthcare and priority setting.
Grace Xiang
Bioethics Education Co-Chair
I am recent graduated philosophy major from NYU with a bioethics minor. I am pre-med so I'm currently applying to medical school, while still hoping to be involved in an academic philosophy and bioethics communty.
Michele Anzabi
Outreach Co-Chair
Michele Anzabi is a Master of Science in Bioethics candidate at Harvard Medical School, where she received the Dean's scholarship for her work in advancing the position of the underserved and underrepresented in her field. She is currently researching fetal therapy ethics at Boston Children's Hospital. Along with minors in Chemistry and Hispanic Studies, Michele earned her Bachelors of Arts degree in Health & Societies with a concentration in Bioethics through the History & Sociology of Science department at the University of Pennsylvania. As an undergraduate, she worked in reproductive justice with PERIOD and the Hospital of University of Pennsylvania, global public health at the Shifo Foundation, medical humanities at the Collegium Institute, and clinical ethics at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. Michele hopes to have a career that integrates her interests in bioethics and medicine.
Ryan Philips
Outreach Co-Chair
Ryan Philips is a Masters in Bioethics candidate at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has interned for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences as a Bioethics Intern. He graduated from the Philosophy and Medicine program at Baylor University in 2023.
Tyra Gravesande
Research Co-Chair
Tyra Gravesande is a women's health, femtech, sexual and reproductive health and justice leader who works at the intersections of the reproductive health, rights, advocacy, and social justice movements. She is a MS in Bioethics Candidate at Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and holds a BA in Comparative Women's Studies from Spelman College.
Hannah Carpenter
Research Co-Chair
Hannah Carpenter is a Ph.D. Student in Bioethics & Health Humanities at The University of Texas Medical Branch, where she studies Bioethics and Health Humanities. Hannah has read law in England and has an undergraduate degree in Law with American Law (LLB) from the University of East Anglia, as well as a Masters degree (MA) in Medical Law and Ethics from Kings College London. Hannah has a strong interest in reproductive law and medicine due to her background working in law and policy at the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.
Kaavya Shriram
Social Media Co-Chair
I'm really interested in global medical ethics, especially the lack of validity and trust in medicine in rural areas and third world countries. My grandmother was a victim of unethical medicinal care in India which has fostered this interest. I do research and volunteer at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and am an avid member of Science Olympiad. I've dissected a dogfish, fetal pig, a turtle and a cat. In my free time I love to read romance novels, listen to music and bake.
Riya Bajpai
Social Media Co-Chair
I am a high school student in Virginia who gained in interest in bioethics through the co-curricular HOSA, when I competed in the Biomedical Debate event. Currently, I am in my school's biotechnology class, where I enjoy partaking in our ethical debates. I have a particular interest in clinical ethics and health policy and hope to pursue further education in public health and psychology!